The Washington Capitals selected Stanislav Galiev (friends call him “Stan”) as the 86th overall pick in the draft. The baby-faced left winger from Moscow stood out during development camp as a competent skater, playmaker, and polyglot whiz. He’s not a particularly big player (178 lbs), but Galiev’s personality is plenty big. Our girl Friday, Oksana Zolotar, chatted up Stan in his native tongue following Wednesday’s scrimmage.

Follow us past the jump to learn about his adoration of Alexander Semin, bulking up, and Russian camaraderie at dev camp. If you missed Monday’s interview with Evgeny Kuznetsov, we politely remind you that this will all be on the final exam.

Oksana Zolotar: So you’ve been in America a while now…Stanislav Galiev: Yeah, I’ve played here for two years already.

OZ: So you know English pretty well by now.SG: By now, yeah.OZ: Yeah I’ve noticed, everyone says that you translate everything.SG: Yeah I try to help out a little, make a little money. [Laughs]

OZ: When the season’s over, do you relax a little bit in terms of training? Or keep at the same rate?SG: Well when this season was over, I stayed in Toronto for another two weeks and worked before the test with my agent. After the test I rested a bit, went to Turkey.

A serious look from a big personality (Photo by Neil Greenberg)

OZ: What do you think you have to work on to reach the next level? What weaknesses do you have?SG: Well, I think I have to gain a bit more weight, physical mass, and play defense a little better.

OZ: For next year, what plans do you have? What goals?SG: I want to make the Russian Junior hockey team, other than that just work as hard as I have been.

OZ: If you were to compare yourself to a famous player, who would it be? Why?SG: I mean, I don’t think I have one. I’d love to be similar to Semin; I love his style.

OZ: Play with Semin in Washington?SG: Yeah!

During Thursday's scrimmage, Galiev had 1G, 1A and the game's deciding shootout tally. On Saturday, his shootout goal shown above also pushed white to victory.

OZ: What about the Russian guys? Did you know them for a long time before camp?SG: Dima [Dmitri Orlov] and Zhenya?OZ: YeahSG: Dima I didn’t know before, but Zhenya yeah, we’re good friends, played together.

OZ: And what about the well-known players? Do you know Ovechkin?SG: Ovechkin no, not yet.OZ: Not yet?SG: Yeah, just give me a little bit of time. [Laughs]

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Check back on Wednesday for our third and final interview with Dmitri Orlov.

if the people who actually play hockey admire semin’s hockey skills, and i’m not just talking about galiev here, what does that say about the part of the caps fan base that wants to trade sasha for any other player out there? i’d spell it out (rectal-cranial inversion) but i don’t want to get banned for foul language. =D